Trans actors can play cis but cis can't play trans. Why am I bothering to try and see the sense?

Whitewashing history and historical characters is a serious problem in the film industry. This is not that.

As an aside, always worth noting qualifiers like this as a reminder to those that think posters here don’t walk on egg shells with their language with concerns that the budding team of external TRA Monitors (note, not moderators) will vexatiously report.

I got my last warning for use of the phrase 'be in a ds'.

I specifically was not referring to trans people, which MNHQ acknowledged, but bloke/man in... is strictly verboten- hence my caution.

Could a feminine gay man play a trans character then?
Jaye Davidson in 'The Crying Game'. It was necessary for the plot that he passed as a woman, and he did, at least on screen.

I seem to remember actors getting hounded out of roles because they aren’t the same race (even if the original was a comic book character) as the original character and making a show of declining the part.

Shouldn’t this actor have done the same? No one criticised this actor who wasn’t born female playing a character who was a woman who had given birth (so no ambiguity or twists in the plot)?

Barely known actor creates bonkers media controversy to get attention. Yawn.

I can’t believe the irony of someone who wasn’t born female playing the part of a mother and whinging that a man was playing a trans part

It’s narcissism really.

It’s called acting, darling.

Asan eminent director once said to me.

There have been many gay/bi men playing male lead roles. Think of old Hollywood!

they don't pass

I would be very confused and distracted if I saw a play where the mother was played by an obvious man. I would be even more confused if there was also another trans character in the play.

There is a difference between a man in a dress and a Trans Woman. One is masculine-identifying, the other is feminine-identifying. Without this difference there would be no Trans.

But I've seen transwomen that don't act feminine at all. I've also seem men that are very feminine and arnt trans. So how does that make sense?

Could a feminine gay man play a trans character then?

This is getting silly now. I can’t believe the irony of someone who wasn’t born female playing the part of a mother and whinging that a man was playing a trans part.

That statement to me is that they only want transwomen to be passing ones so that they can be more accepted as real women.

The actor who resigned definitely only doesn't want passing men who identify as women to be classed as transwomen, because

1. they don't pass
2. they said having both roles played by men who identify as women would be powerful and more interesting.

If a man playing a trans woman in a play perpetuates the myth that transwomen are just a bloke in a dress - why do actual blokes in dresses that don't physically transition get accepted by the trans community. Why do drag queens get accepted. Why do gender fluid men like that Pippa character I think it is get accepted. Why men with beards?

That statement to me is that they only want transwomen to be passing ones so that they can be more accepted as real women. Which is the oppersite of the current policy.

Is there a chance a trans woman would be put off the part if the character is mid transition and you were asking them to play a man for the first half... triggering/literal violence?

Glenda Jackson should play EVERY role.

She’s awesome.

Problem solved.

Velociraptors and other dinosaurs were oppressed because they were assigned reptile at hatching. It's awfully hard to identify as mammalian, however warm your blood might feel, when everyone knows your mother wasn't viviparous.

If only everyone had been kinder and more understanding, perhaps they'd still be with us.

This is just sad.

I have a sneaking suspicion that an actor likes drama

Their statement:

O'Donnell said: "I could not be in a show where a trans woman is once again seen as a man in a dress as this perpetuates the idea that this is what a trans woman is and leads to violence, even death.

Most likely reality:
Audiences find it easier to follow the story when a transwoman character is played by an actor who was born male. Audiences say they have little interest in the actor's personal life, they care about the quality of the performance they have come to watch.

And that has absolutely nothing to do with anything to do with this thread. Sorry.

@Mockerswithnoknockers Didn't he dodge the Vietnam Draft by saying he was Australian in the USA and a US Citizen in Australia - Now that's being what you're not.

Not a supporter or fan of Mel Gibson, but he was 16 In 1972 when conscription stopped in Australia. Conscripts were 20.

having an actor who was born male playing a trans woman increases prejudice because "many people internalise the myth that being trans is a performance, a deception, that trans women are 'really men'."

This is the biggest dollop of nonsense I’ve ever seen, in a whole heap of bloody nonsense.

There is a difference between a man in a dress and a Trans Woman. One is masculine-identifying, the other is feminine-identifying. Without this difference there would be no Trans.

How can we tell the difference?

The producers are falling over themselves to say how hard they tried to find a transwoman to play the role.

They haven't told us how hard they tried to find a middle-aged actress to play the mother role. I am surprised there were none. There are lots of young female actresses so do 99% of them spontaneously combust after menopause?

My favourite comment on the Mail article is I was outraged when I discovered Johnny Depp wasn't a real pirate.

So they are effectively moving from 'talking about trans women v women' to 'talking about women v c women.

For which reason, I'd be inclined at the moment to leave references to Cis men for men to notice and think about.